Malcolm Knowles
Malcolm Shepherd Knowles (August 24, 1913 – November 27, 1997) was an American educator best known for popularizing andragogy—the idea that adults learn differently than children. He helped develop Humanist Learning Theory and promoted using learner-made plans to guide study.
Knowles was born in Montana and grew up in Florida. He finished high school in 1930 and earned a Harvard AB in 1934. He worked for the National Youth Administration in Massachusetts and married Hulda Elisabet Fornell in 1935.
In 1940 he became Director of Adult Education at the Boston YMCA. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war, he moved to Chicago to direct YMCA Adult Education while earning his MA from the University of Chicago in 1949.
From 1951 to 1959 he led the Adult Education Association of the USA and earned his PhD at Chicago in 1960. In 1959 he joined Boston University as an associate professor of adult education and taught there for 14 years.
In 1974 Knowles moved to North Carolina State University for his last four years before retirement. After retirement he taught at Fielding Graduate University and the University of Arkansas. He died of a stroke in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1997, aged 84. He and Hulda had two children. He published more than 230 articles and 18 books. He was a Democrat and served on the board of the Massachusetts Adult Education Association.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 23:25 (CET).